Patience

The dissolution of Veronica Falls in the early 2010s prompted vocalist/guitarist Roxanne Clifford to begin crafting synth pop under the Patience name. Several singles first presented this sound, which employed fresh instrumentation while preserving the dramatic melancholy that had defined her earlier work, before the project’s debut album Dizzy Spells appeared in 2019. Veronica Falls had existed for six years and generated numerous singles, tours, and two albums; once the group ended, Clifford relocated from the U.K. to Los Angeles. There she wrote guitar-based material in the vein of her former band as well as synth pop tracks built around keyboards and programming. The latter approach more accurately reflected her frame of mind and its spontaneous recording method appealed to her, so she launched Patience and issued the single “The Church”/“My Own Invention” on Night School Records in early 2016. The song was begun at home and completed in Glasgow with Lewis Cook of the Glasgow duo Happy Meals. Another single cut in similar fashion, “The Pressure”/“Wait for You,” followed later that year. A final collaboration with Cook, “White of an Eye”/“Blue Sparks,” surfaced in 2017. Each release illustrated her synth pop strengths by incorporating elements from Chicago House, Strawberry Switchblade-style indie pop, and Yaz. Dizzy Spells gathered the three earlier singles together with tracks engineered by Misha Herring of Virginia Wing, a house-inspired piece co-produced by sometime-Daft Punk collaborator Todd Edwards, and a vocal duet with Veronica Falls bandmate Marion Herbain. Clifford founded her own Winona Records label to release the album in May of 2019, while Night School handled the U.K. edition.